America-Peering around the corner

 I recently changed my computer password to ‘Gott helfen Amerika’ (God help America). I do this when I feel the need to have a daily reminder to pray for a country in crisis. And I do feel that the United States is in a crisis of sorts. Some of it is of her own making.

 Her leaders in recent years have not been kind to her. Bill Clinton pushed through abortion policies and tried to mainstream the gay community, Bush ruined her economy through expensive and pointless wars. Then enter Obama; one of the most brilliant minds to have ruled that nation. He stabilized the economy but then handed Persia, Israel's nemesis, the power to be nuclear-armed nation in a few short years. And whether by intent or through naivety he has set the nation on a moral tangent from which she may never recover. During his rule, a great assault on the Christian faith has been shaping up and some see the danger ahead. Ravi Zacharias sums it up this way;  

"If the worldview that framed her is abandoned, the worldview that she thinks she espouses will not be strong enough to withstand the assault of counter-perspectives"  

What does he mean? Simply that America owes its robustness to the basic Christian principles from which it was founded. If she abandons her Christian roots, she will not have the strength to overcome a culture-war such as is happening in parts of Europe with Islam.  

Speaking of Europe, French President Hollande's publishers are about to release a tell-all book in which he speaks frankly about the problems facing his country. Some statements such as the one below have caused quite an uproar. 

"It's true that there's a problem with Islam. No one doubts it. It's not that Islam poses a problem in the sense that it is a dangerous religion, but in as far as it wants to affirm itself as a religion of the Republic. ("Un président ne devrait pas dire ça") 

France fiercely defends her secular culture but of late she has seen violence visited upon her as some Islamic youth and immigrants engage in riots and terror. In-between, there have been loud disputes on religious matters e.g. as the government tries to suppress the construction of more mosques, or when it passed a law to ban the face-covering burqa and most recently a legal war on the Bukini swim-suit has broken out.i'd say, France secularism has created a spiritual void which Islam is now attempting to fill. What has this got to do with the United States? 

Barring a major blow to her candidacy, it now looks like Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the United States. It is also likely that she will continue many of President Obama's policies. I will focus exclusively on the moral and spiritual issues. 

Hillary feels quite strongly about giving women the power to choose when to abort. However as Mother Theresa once put it to her face as an invited guest to a national prayer breakfast; 

".. I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even His life to love us. So, the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts. 

By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. 

And, by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion.  

Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want." 

 During Bill Clinton's time in office she was known to consort with New Agers to seek direction on policy matters. It is also likely that her administration will continue the hostile posture against conservative Christianity that Obama has propagated. 

Of course Trump is no better. On moral issues he may tick all the right things that resound with evangelical Christians even though there is nothing in his persona or moral intuition to write home about. After watching the presidential debates I am convinced that the devil is indeed very pleased with himself. Whether Trump wins or not, the 'experiment' is a grand success. Extremism as a latent power in the masses has shown that it can be harnessed and mainstreamed even in the so-called modern societies. The same sentiments floating around Trump's campaign are the same ones that led to Brexit in Britain. As Mutuma Mathiu says;  

“Trump has harnessed, nursed and inflamed America’s unfortunate racial tendencies that threaten to consume the world’s sole superpower…He has succeeded in bringing the US down to the same level as Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo." 

 This is an important advent for the Antichrist for he will mainstream radicalism (as Trump has done) and will be a popular master strategist (as Obama has been). Two very different people showing that the two faces of the Antichrist are real possibilities in modern society!

It is not like America is facing an uncertain future. It is facing a very certain future, only that its future is fraught with moral and spiritual landmines that can pose an existential threat to the very fabric of her society. Indeed there is now every possibility that in a few short years America will not exist in the form we now know it. This has many implications for Christianity the world over: 

The United States has lent its power to provide cover for Israel and Jews for many years. With the Iran deal this is now in the balance. President Obama has had some of the worst spats with any Jewish leader in recent history. Netanyahu took the unprecedented step of addressing congress directly, bypassing the American presidency on a diplomatic issue. This is the equivalent of Museveni coming to address Kenyan opposition members in parliament over an issue he disagrees with president Uhuru.  We pray that Hillary Clinton will take a less adversarial stance. Of presidents and kings the bible says; The king’s heart is like a stream of water directed by the Lord; he guides it wherever he pleases. Prov.21:1

The environment in America, built upon solid Christian principles has fostered some of the greatest missionary movements we know in the world. The United States has the largest population of Christians in the world and it sends out the largest number of missionaries. These are now at risk. World evangelism will suffer if American Christians are no longer able to wield their knowledge and financial muscle as God would have them. 

America has nurtured some of the greatest Christian teachers and Christian-based educational institutions we know. We are all beneficiaries of these great men and women's wisdom. We owe it to them to pray for their country so that others like them may rise up in future generations. 

Finally America has provided a counter-culture to communist power in China and Russia, secularism in Europe, and Islam in Arabia all seeking to transform Africa into their own image. If it is weakened further by secularism then other countercultures will swiftly move in to fill the void. Open society as we know it may cease to exist within a few decades. Christianity will be difficult to advance in any country the world over. 

You will know how to pray.

Kaka henri

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/US-presidential-campaign-tells-us-we-might-soon-need-to-pray/440808-3424322-blqxadz/index.html

https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/mother-teresa-hillary-clinton-the-national-prayer-breakfast-and-the-good-sa